Remote-control firing mechanism for machine guns



REMOTE CONTROL FIRING MECHANISM FOR MACHINE GUNS Filed April 15, 1942 luvs raw 8 650965 R 0604/? l ZqYA/E 6 50445 Patented Oct. 29, 1946 REMOTE-CONTROLFIRING MECHANISM} ron AomNE GUNS 1 George R.;scar, West Milton, and Wayne S. 4

Boals, Dayton, Ohio Application April 1 3, 1942, Serial No. 438,744 1 Claim. (01. 89--27) (Granted nnder the act of" March 3, 1883, as

I The'invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or'for Government for governmental purposes, without the, payment to us of any royaltythereom a l This invention relates to a trigger-actuating mechanism for firearms and more particularly to a mechanism of, thisnature which can be ,controlledat a distance from the firearm concerned. r {It is old in the prior art to control the actuationof a, trigger of a firearm from a distant point. A device of this nature is shown in U. S. Patent No. 1,352,891, issued to Samuel G. Green on September 14, 1920. According to the disclosure of this patent, a solenoid is secured to therear end of. the gun and a plunger-actuated bylth'esolenoid is connected by a linkage 'tothe trigger-of the gum. Thus, when the solenoid-is energized-the trigger is actuated and the gun caused to fire; Itwill be noted in the patent to Green, however, that the solenoid is secured be hind the pistol grip of the. gun, the plunger of the solenoid being connected to'the trigger by .means of a pivoted. lever and-a depending link.

This arrangement, results in the overall length oigthe gun being increased and necessitatesthe use" of a, large solenoid in order to overcome the friction and weight of the lever and link. In ordergtozreduce the bulk and weight of the Green device and, at the same time to simplify the construction, .we-propose the use of a solenoid which is conveniently arranged so as not-to add to the overall length of the gun and which. also acts in a direct manner to operate the trigger and cause firing ,of the gun.

.In addition to the arrangement Green,- it has been common practice to mount the solenoid on the side of a machine gun of the Browning type with the solenoid plunger to mount the solenoid on the back plate of the gun where it can actuate the conventional trigger -mechanism and where it will not increase the overall width of the gun. It will also be noticed that by mounting the solenoid in this position,

amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) arapid change from manpal u 535 disclosed by operation to remote control operation may be effected by merely're moving the back plate containing the spade grips and. manual trigger "and replacing it with one containing the. solenoid. In' this manner the solenoid is eliminated as a separatemechanisrn to be attached to the gun and consequently the arming time of thegun is considerably reduced.

Accordingly, one of the objects. of our invene tion is to provide aremote-control trigger-am tuating mechanism for a machine gun of the Browning type which mechanism will .notiincrease the .overall width or length of the gun.

Another object of'our invention is to provide a solenoid controlled firing me'chanism which will operate directly upon the conventional triggar-mechanism of the Browning machine gun, thereby eliminating the need of any -costly're vision of the present machine gun structure. A further object of our invention is to provide a remote-control trigger-actuating mechanism for a Browning machine gun in which the mech ani'sm is secured to the back plate of the gun so as to enable ready conversion of the gun from manual control to solenoid control by a mere interchange of back plates.- 1

Still a further object of our invention is .to

provide a solenoid controlled firing mechanism for a machine gun which is comparatively light in weight and inexpensive to construct. It is possible with our arrangement to use a smaller posed between the plunger and the conventional trigger mechanism of the gun.

In the drawing which follows we have shown our improved device mounted on the back plate of a Browning machine gun of the type disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 2,050,539, issued to Frederick T. Moore on August 11, 1936, and U. S. Patent No. 2,108,060, issued to Samuel G. Green on February 15, 1938.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of our device showing how the same cooperateswith the conventional machine gun structure, the back plate and breech casing of the gun being shown in cross section in order to better illustrate the invention.

Figure 2.is a rear view of our improved device.

In Figure 1 of the drawing, a conventional back plate of the type used with a Browning machine gun is indicated at iii. This plate may be removed from the gun by sliding it upwardly out of the breech casing, the side plates i2 and M of the casing being provided with vertical grooves which receive suitable tenons' provided on the back plate. The breech casing'is provided with a top plate It and a bottom plate It so as to completely enclose the breech mechanism and thus protect it from dirt and. injury. A. sear.

actuating arm 28 is situated withinthe breech.

casing, this arm being pivoted therein in a wellknown manner and being adapted-to depress the sear when the rear end of the arm is lift'edby the trigger. The back plate is latched in place direction about its pivot 24, thusoausin'g anotcjh 1: formed in the latch to enga e with the-Tea? edge of the bottom plate l8. To remove the back plate it is only necessary to release the latch 22 and slide the plate" upwardly out of the gun;

To the back plate iii is secured the well-known bufier tube 28 on 'the'top of which is mounted a solenoid 30 by means of straps 32 and'clamping bolts 34. In order to insure that the solenoid will not be jarred'out of position during firing of the gun, a forwardly extending flange 3E on the solenoid is received between spaced flanges 32 provided on the back plate l8 secured thereto by means of rivets iil. A spring-retracted plunger 42 is located Within the solenoid and is provided with an extension 44 which'engages the rear face of a trigger 46 pivoted at 41 in a recess cut in the back plate. This trigger is normally urged in a clockwise direction by means of a compression spring 43 so as to insure the release of'the sear actuatingarm- 20 by the trigger when the solenoid is deenergized. The extension 44 is threaded at one end and screws into a tapped hole extending longitudinally into the end of plunger d2. A nut 49 screwed onto the extension 44 provides a means for adjustably securing the extension in the end of the plunger 42. By means of this adjustment the position of the trigger with respect to the sear actuating armwhen the solenoid is deenergized may be adjusted as desired. A conductor 50 is connected to the solenoid for supplying the energizing current thereto so as-to enable the solenoid to expel the plunger 42 against the trigger 4 5, thus swinging the trigger in a counterclockwise direction about its pivot M so as to cam up the end of the sear actuating arm 26.

If desired, amanual means for firing the gun may be supplied in addition to thesolenoid this means taking the form of a bell crank 52 (see'Fig. 2), which is pivotally mounted at 54 on'a bracket 4 56 which is clamped to the rear end of the bufier tube 28 by a bolt 58. One arm of the bell crank 52 is provided with a thumb plate 63, the other arm 52 being provided at its upper end with a dog 64. The dog 6411s pivoted to thearm 62 at 66 and may be moved to either anefiective or ineffective position for actuating the plunger 42.

As shown in Figure 1, the dog is in its eiiective position with the projection 63 thereon in position to} contact the rear end of the plunger 42 and move the plunger to the right when the thumb plate isdepressed. The dog 64 is held in the position shown in Figure l by means of a spring-loadedball detent' located in a recess in the arm 62 (not shown). If it is desired to render themanual operating means ineffective, the dog may be moved ninety degrees counterclockwise from its Figure 1 position Where it will be retained by the detent. In this position of the dog, the projection 58 will be'ineiiective to actuate the plunger 42 upon depression of the thumb plateBD. The bell crank 5 2is'provided withatorsion spring it which normally retains the bell crank in-its counterclockwise, or Figurel, position.

From the above description and the accompanying drawings it will be seen that We have provided a solenoid trigger-actuating mechanism which may be operated from a distance to effect the firing of a machine gun. It will also-be observed that the solenoid is so mounted on the rear of the gun that it may act directly upon the conventional trigger mechanism thus dispensing witha-ny intermediatelinkages. It will further be seen-that by securing the solenoid directly to the back plate of the gun it is possible to change over from a remotely controlled firing system to a manual one by a simple interchange of back plates. The extreme simplicity-and de sirability of our device asv compared"with the prior art devices is readily apparent from the drawing and the foregoing description.

Whatwe claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

For use with a machine gun, a fire control device comprising a back plate, a buffer tube secured to said back plate; a trigger pivotally mounted on said'back plate, a solenoid for electrically operating the gun; means for clamping said solenoid to said bufier tube, ap-lunger of extensible length within said solenoid aligned with said trigger so as to cause the gun to be fired when the. solenoid is energized and permanently locked means secured to said solenoid and to said back plate'for locating and holding said plunger in alignment with'said trigger. l

. GEORGE R. OSCAR.

-WAYNE S. BOALS. 

